Eur. Phys. J. D 35, 483-497 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2005-00173-x

Study of coupled states for the (4s²)¹S + (4s4p)³P asymptote of Ca₂^*

¹ Institut für Quantenoptik, Universität Hannover, Welfengarten 1, 30167 Hannover, Germany
² Department of Physics, Sofia University, 5 James Bourchier blvd, 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria
³ Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, CNRS, Bâtiment 505, Campus d'Orsay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France

Corresponding authors: ^a falke@iqo.uni-hannover.de - ^b tiemann@iqo.uni-hannover.de

Received: 29 April 2005
Published online: 28 June 2005

Abstract

The coupled states  (¹D + ¹S), (³P + ¹S) and  (³P + ¹S) of the calcium dimer are investigated in a laser induced fluorescence experiment combined with high-resolution Fourier-transform spectroscopy. A coupled state analysis of the observed levels, considering a potential model, which is complete within the subspace of relevant neighboring states, is performed using the Fourier Grid Hamiltonian method. We determine the potential energy curve of the  and states and the strengths of the couplings between them. The and  states are of particular importance for the description of collisional processes between calcium atoms in the ground state ¹S₀ and excited state ³P₁ applied in studies for establishing an optical frequency standard with Ca.